An Unsacrificing Love
by Annabella Colt
Summary: "They said that this was impossible and could never happen. They told me that I would remain alone for all of eternity and no man would want to be with someone like me. I guess they never heard Helen Keller's quote, 'What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.'"
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Alright you readers, this is a brand new story that I've been working on for a while and I promise I will not abandon it. I've been working on this for a while and I hope that you all enjoy this story. **

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It was at last the time of year where someone could comfortably wear three-quarter length shirts. Winter had long passed and it was towards the end of spring. More and more bees were coming out to the blooming roses and lilies. It was the season of hay fever and hormones. But for Arabella Rebekah Mae Kuppenheimer, it was a season for sneezing, taking care of her baby boy, and . . . . dating a new boy.

It was strange dating again. Hell, it was strange for her to even go on one dating again and said guy not running off in panic because she's a mother. But, this one was different. This guy that she's dating didn't look at her disgustingly when he saw he hold Wyatt. He was surprisingly cool about her ending a date early because she was having separation anxiety. Speaking of her new boyfriend, Don hadn't returned from the depths of her bedroom yet.

Venturing into her personal, private quarters; she found her detective boyfriend sitting hunched over on her bed, staring intently at something. Climbing onto her bed, Arabella, (or Ella as everybody else called her), she wrapped her arms over his shoulders. It turned out Don was staring intently at a very old picture of her.

"I thought you grew up in the Seattle area." stated the Irish man. In his hand was the picture and in it was her with a curly brown haired teenager her age. In the background were lines of corn stalks.

"I grew up in Bremerton, Washington which is only a hour long ferry ride away. So yes, I did grow up in the Seattle area."

"But in your little town, there were bunches of corn?"

"We had a corn maze that was open to the public in the fall."

"A corn maze?"

"Yes, a corn maze. Is there something wrong with corn mazes?"

Don open his mouth and then smartly shut it. The last thing he wanted to do was insult her and her childhood with one of his famous sarcastic remark. Even though she'd fire one back, he really likes her and Don likes to think that she at least tolerates him. He'd prefer to keep it that way and so he answered a question with a question.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?"

"The half-German answered frankly, "No, not really."

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"Hey Flack! Where ya going? The gym's _that _way." Danny Messer directed, He pointed his finger in the opposite way Don had been going. It was Friday; the best day of the week in the Italian's opinion because that meant it was their annual game night.

"I'm not playing in the game today buddy. I've got a hot date tonight that I've got to prepare for and I'd rather not go to _Star's_dressed in jeans."

"Date? You've got a date tonight and you're taking her to Star's?" questioned the other man. "So she's got teeth?"

"Haha, very funny Danno. If you must know, it's not just any hot date I'm going out with; I'm going out with my girlfriend. That entitles me to leave the precinct early and actually have time to get ready and pick her up on time."

"Alright, in that case; be responsible and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"You need to be more specific man. Don't do what you might do could be anywhere from calling the date off early to watch the Ranger some hockey ass to flirt with the waitress."

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**Don't forget to Review!**


	2. Chapter 2: Vacation Getaway

**I know this has taken a long time to update and I apologize, but here it is! Here is Chapter 2: Vacation Getaway. As the chapter kind of indicates; this takes place post Vacation Getaway. Oh, and Thank you to all who has favorite and followed this story right at the beginning. I'm glad you all have liked it so far and here is a great, huge hug and thanks to my editor who pre-reads all of my chapters and gives me good criticism.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned CSI: New York: Lindsay would already have had another child by now.**

**Guest: I'm glad you liked the start of it so far and here's the next chapter :)**

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Loud banging on Arabella-Mae's apartment door woke her from her freshly sleeping state. Groggily, Ella practically fell out of her warm bed and stumbled to the headache making noise on the other side of her door. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noted that barely anytime had passed since she had rocked her sixth month old back to bed. About half way there, Ella glanced at the clock which blared the time of 2:13 A.M. Right now, her half-awake state could only focus on sleep, but once she saw who it was on the other side of the door, sleep would be the last thing on her mind.

On the other side of her door was her boyfriend. Immediately, she noticed his black hair had strands sticking in various directions; probably from running his large hands through them repeatedly. There were bags under his eyes that usually shined with laughter. Yet, the most noticeable thing about his appearance was his chest; instead of a nice button up shirt or a jacket she had constantly seen him wear, his torso was covered by a dark blue bulletproof vest.

"Hi there." Arabella murmured.

He answered back, "Hi."

"Normally, when my boyfriend comes to my apartment after his shift, I'd ask 'how was work?' But I think that'd be a really bad question to ask right now. I'm all ears if you want to talk about it."

Don gave her a sad smile, "Maybe in the morning. Do you mind if I spend the night?"

"Of course not Don." Ella smiled and quickly stepped aside to let him in. Once the detective did so; his stomach let out a loud, hungry growl.

Ella softly chuckled, "When was the last time you ate?"

"Uh, I don't exactly remember. I think . . . it was around noon."

"Well come on Mr. First grade detective, I'll heat up some leftover arabiatta pasta."

"Thanks."

As the couple were on their way to Ella's fridge, a gurgling noise made them both stop in their tracks. From the baby monitor sitting on her radio, little cooing sounds filled the dead silent apartment. The brunette picked up the white-metallic object and pressed it against her ear. After a good five-second period of silence, her shoulders visibly relaxed and made a conclusion about her six-month-old son.

"He's fine; he just woke up briefly and cooed himself back to sleep."

Alarm flared through Don's blue eyes, "Did I wake him up? I- "

"You didn't wake him up Don," interrupted Ella. "Wyatt is a very deep sleeper. The sky could fall and he wouldn't wake up and beside, lately he's been waking up in the dead of night and most of the time he's fallen back to sleep by himself."

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Roughly fifteen minutes after Flack's arrival, steaming pasta was being delivered onto his plate. His eyes hungrily eyed the penne and shrimp while his nostrils were being enflamed by the smells of spices. Slowly his fork picked up a couple pieces of penne and shrimp. Anxiously, Arabella waited for any comment from her boyfriend. Strangely, the first noises to come out of his mouth were fits of coughing instead of moans of praise.

Sheepishly smiling Ella commented, "By the way, it's a little spicy."

"Spicy? More like angry." Don retorted, "How much spice did you put in the pasta and shrimp?"

"Maybe a little more than a lot." She looked up from Don's plate to his face and saw him give her a look. "What? This dish is _supposed_ to be spicy."

"Ok, but next time could you give me a heads up when you cook something that's pretty spicy so that I don't nearly cough it back up?"

"Sure. Oh, and Don?"

"Hmm?" he answered back with a mouth full of pasta and shrimp. The next thing he knew he felt Ella's arms wrap around his neck and lean her head against his.

"How much longer do you plan to wear your bullet-proof vest?"

Huh? The taller man looked down to his chest and wouldn't you know it, he was indeed still wearing his Kevlar vest. Immediately, his fingers quickly unfastened it from his chest and he set down on the chair next to his. Soon after, Ella moved out of her embrace from Don and let her fingers feel the fabric on the material that often saves Don's life constantly while on the job.

"Ella?" asked Don. He received no answer from his girlfriend. "El?" Still no answer from girlfriend whose eyes were fixated on his vest. "Ella?" And once again no answer from the brunette wearing her oversized New York Rangers sweatshirt. "Arabella!"

"What?!" exclaimed the brunette.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, I don't know," Flack sarcastically shrugged, "Maybe it's because I called your name three times and you didn't hear my while I'm sitting _right next to you._ Again I'm going to ask you a question: are you alright?"

"Oh I'm fine."

"Which explains why you once again didn't answer me when I called your name three times. Let me rephrase my question; what's on your mind?"

"I-um . . . well do you . . . do you . . ." Arabella pushed up her glasses and ran a nervous hand over her curly hair. "Do you ever get tired . . . do you ever wonder when . . ."

"Hey, it's okay." He soothed, "Whatever it is; you can talk to me about it. The whole 'listening to you' thing works both ways." In an extra effort to calm his girlfriend's nerves, Don cupped her check with his hand and eagerly, Ella leaned into his touch and put a hand over his.

"When you . . . when you finish up a case, do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you weren't a cop? I'm not asking you to quit or anything like that. I'm just wondering."

Without missing a beat, Flack replied, "I use to. I use to wonder why I was getting up at the crack of dawn to 'protect and serve' this city when everybody here seemed to hate us."

"What changed?"

"This friend of mine who I had liked for a long time got pregnant and one day she said, 'throughout our lives we met several types of people: people who tend to help others, people who tend to hurt others, and people who fell in between. The NYPD catches the people who hurt others and tries to get away with it. You guys help the families who've already gone to rock bottom who has get hurt by thieves and murderers. The finest of the NYPD represents honor, humility, and justice.'"

A soft smile graced Arabella's lips, "A friend said that, huh?"

"Yeah, although now she's like my super smart and super-hot girlfriend. Did you know that she's also a kick-ass mom?"

"You might have mentioned it once or twice."

And with enough said Don pressed his lips against hers.

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**Hope it wasn't too fluffy for you guys! Reviews mean the quicker I'll update :)**


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